Whew! Looooong hiatus, but, I’m back with another writing prompt!
Here it is:
Choose some of your characters: List something that they know they should do, but in reality, they won’t, and list why not.
Tae
I should tell Kieran that I will never be with him and that he needs to stay with Amathayon and leave me alone.
I won’t because I would rather be near him, despite the pain it causes us both, than be apart from him.
Kieran
I should care more that we lost Aislin to Solak, or at all.
I won’t because all that I care about is Tae waking up. Until she’s all right, nothing else matters.
Malkor
I should, as his close friend, tell Ardin that Isonde was injured, and that the Isonde he sees now is not the woman he is in love with.
I won’t because I need him to be functioning and hold up his end of the charade. I don’t trust that he can hold it together if he knows what happened to her, and he’ll blow everything by exerting every imperial resource to get her healed and find Janeen. That kind of attention would not go unnoticed but he’d be too upset to think of the consequences.
Kayla
I should not bring Corinth to the arena to help shield me from the other Wyrds. His safety should be my top priority all times, and exposing him is a risk to his freedom and possibly life that his ro-haar should never make.
I will bring Corinth to the arena because I now care about winning the Empress Game, and need his help.
Malkor
I should call the whole Empress Game charade off and get Isonde even better medical care.
I won’t because I know she would rather risk it with mediocre care to become the empress that would shape the fate of the entire empire and perhaps engineer the alliance that brings the cure for the TNV to the empire.
Sindel
I should forget about Khelbyn and my days with him. He is forever gone and the past will never be again. I should find a new purpose to life before I waste what time I have left.
I won’t because I can’t recover from his loss and I don’t want to. I want to keep him with me always, even if it means ignoring every mission I should be on, every promise I had made before, and everything that had ever meant something to me.
Janeen
I should go to the head of IDF and bring my evidence of Malkor and Isonde cheating the Empress Game in an attempt to get the disqualified and Divinya be named the de facto winner of the Kayla-Divinya match. I have an obligation to my people to do all I can to put Divinya on the throne.
I won’t because I don’t want to face the punishment for my actions.
The Buri
I should stop barking at other dogs from the safety of my balcony because I know my mumma doesn’t want me to do it.
I won’t because I…must…bark!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
SFFS Snipet -- February 11th
I was trying to think of what to post for my SFFS snippet this week, when a writing prompt struck me. I didn’t get a chance to finish the prompt (work, you stink!) but I wanted to post what I had started so far. Here goes!
Snippet --->
The shadows came and went. They weren’t waves and they weren’t predictable. It was the shielding of a body on the upper walk here, a momentary cloud over the sun there; each no more than a puddle. If she knew the pattern she could skip like a stone across them all, finding a way in darkness to the street’s other side.
Instead she hung back under the awning, waiting like a starving child for a crust of bread that was never going to come.
She’d have to gamble.
The pennants atop the buildings undulated in the breeze, their fairly stable shadows offering her the best entry point. They’d betray her in a strong gust, but if the wind held steady she could make it halfway across the street without too many acrobatics.
She checked the charge on her transparency generator: still getting the orange “go” light. The mini-field was big enough to surround her and her alone, and while it offered decent cover in low-light areas, the cheap photon emitter couldn’t hold up an illusion under sunlight.
…more to come! :)
Check out the other fabulous snippets at http://scififansat.blogspot.com/
Snippet --->
The shadows came and went. They weren’t waves and they weren’t predictable. It was the shielding of a body on the upper walk here, a momentary cloud over the sun there; each no more than a puddle. If she knew the pattern she could skip like a stone across them all, finding a way in darkness to the street’s other side.
Instead she hung back under the awning, waiting like a starving child for a crust of bread that was never going to come.
She’d have to gamble.
The pennants atop the buildings undulated in the breeze, their fairly stable shadows offering her the best entry point. They’d betray her in a strong gust, but if the wind held steady she could make it halfway across the street without too many acrobatics.
She checked the charge on her transparency generator: still getting the orange “go” light. The mini-field was big enough to surround her and her alone, and while it offered decent cover in low-light areas, the cheap photon emitter couldn’t hold up an illusion under sunlight.
…more to come! :)
Check out the other fabulous snippets at http://scififansat.blogspot.com/
Friday, January 6, 2012
Random Poem Day -- Writing Prompt #40
As always, a quiet blog is a good news for my writing, and this latest chunk of silence brings with it new EG pages. Broke the 49,000 word mark! Come laziness or gaming (hell and high water being such a cliche) I am breaking the 50,000 word mark this weekend. I promise.
For today I'm trying to make it through the last work day of the week and struggling. This, of course, brings on a writing prompt! Today's prompt is easy: write a random poem. Before any poem-fear strikes you, know this. I do not write poems. Ever. But! Writing prompts are for stretching your writing muscles, as well as for writing without critique or edits, so this is the perfect time to try out poetry.
Besides, once you read mine you'll automatically feel good about yours. ;-)
--------------------------------------
Here's mine:
It’s one-thirty I’m losing my mind
Negative gears are going full grind
Wish I could leave get away and unwind
Negative gears are going full grind
Heard all of nothing and it all sounds the same
Work sleep work sleep dying in this game
Legs so bent joints are all getting maimed
Work sleep work sleep dying in this game
Parallel hours make the light long and black
Sleep deep curl wish for not going back
Dying mind fails at picking up the slack
Sleep deep curl wish for not going back
It’s one-thirty I’m losing my mind
Negative gears are going full grind
For today I'm trying to make it through the last work day of the week and struggling. This, of course, brings on a writing prompt! Today's prompt is easy: write a random poem. Before any poem-fear strikes you, know this. I do not write poems. Ever. But! Writing prompts are for stretching your writing muscles, as well as for writing without critique or edits, so this is the perfect time to try out poetry.
Besides, once you read mine you'll automatically feel good about yours. ;-)
--------------------------------------
Here's mine:
It’s one-thirty I’m losing my mind
Negative gears are going full grind
Wish I could leave get away and unwind
Negative gears are going full grind
Heard all of nothing and it all sounds the same
Work sleep work sleep dying in this game
Legs so bent joints are all getting maimed
Work sleep work sleep dying in this game
Parallel hours make the light long and black
Sleep deep curl wish for not going back
Dying mind fails at picking up the slack
Sleep deep curl wish for not going back
It’s one-thirty I’m losing my mind
Negative gears are going full grind
Friday, December 16, 2011
SFFS Snipet -- December
This is my first Saturday participating in the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippet posting! Thanks to Heidi Ruby Miller for directing me over to the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday blog.
I decided to post a quick snippet from my current wip, Empress Game. This is the end of the heroes’ first full conversation:
Their kiss in the arena sprang to mind even as she changed her grip on the hilt of her kris daggers. Alone with him, this close, she caught the heated scent of his skin: old-fashioned imperial soap. A scent sadly lacking on Altair Tri.
He held his hands up—away from his sides, fingers spread—keeping a careful eye on her daggers.
“I mean to make you an offer you can’t refuse, Shadow.”
“And I mean to sheathe my dagger in something soft if you don’t back the hell up and get out of my room. Now.”
“We’ll finish this later.” He slipped out before she could reply.
I decided to post a quick snippet from my current wip, Empress Game. This is the end of the heroes’ first full conversation:
Their kiss in the arena sprang to mind even as she changed her grip on the hilt of her kris daggers. Alone with him, this close, she caught the heated scent of his skin: old-fashioned imperial soap. A scent sadly lacking on Altair Tri.
He held his hands up—away from his sides, fingers spread—keeping a careful eye on her daggers.
“I mean to make you an offer you can’t refuse, Shadow.”
“And I mean to sheathe my dagger in something soft if you don’t back the hell up and get out of my room. Now.”
“We’ll finish this later.” He slipped out before she could reply.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Entangled Publishing Open Call for Anthology Submissions
Here's an awesome open call for submissions by hot new boutique publisher Entangled Publishing. Check out the super cool theme: Geeks! The submission deadline is April 15th, so get those stories in!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Forget the meek—the geek shall inherit the earth, and it’s their turn to find out just how much love bytes. We love seeing beauty and brains combined, whether geeks are dealing with the tiresome rigors of tech support, arguing Star Wars vs. Star Trek, brewing coffee in beakers, pwning the opposing faction in an MMORPG, or single-handedly bringing down an unstoppable robot army. No longer shall geeks be pushed to the bottom of the social ladder. The geek revolution is now, and we want to hear their stories.
Entangled publishing seeks submissions for a 2012 geek collection on the Ever After line. Submissions must:
• Be 20,000 to 40,000 words in length.
• Contain strong romantic elements.
• Involve a geek as a primary character, anything from a programmer to a starship engineer.
All heat levels will be accepted, but erotic elements must not be the main focus of the story.
Previously published material will not be considered, nor will manuscripts that have already been rejected by Entangled.
Manuscripts that have been chosen for the anthology will be released as ebooks in 2012, with the possibility of a print compilation at a later date.
To submit a manuscript for consideration, please send the full manuscript (RTF format) and a one-page query letter briefly describing the premise, heat level, and word count to everafter-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com. Query letters should be addressed to Adrien-Luc Sanders. Please include “Geek Collection” and your title in the subject line.
Submissions are open until April 15th, 2012 and final decisions will be made by May 1st. Standard Entangled Publishing royalty rates apply. Standard Entangled Publishing royalty rates apply.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Forget the meek—the geek shall inherit the earth, and it’s their turn to find out just how much love bytes. We love seeing beauty and brains combined, whether geeks are dealing with the tiresome rigors of tech support, arguing Star Wars vs. Star Trek, brewing coffee in beakers, pwning the opposing faction in an MMORPG, or single-handedly bringing down an unstoppable robot army. No longer shall geeks be pushed to the bottom of the social ladder. The geek revolution is now, and we want to hear their stories.
Entangled publishing seeks submissions for a 2012 geek collection on the Ever After line. Submissions must:
• Be 20,000 to 40,000 words in length.
• Contain strong romantic elements.
• Involve a geek as a primary character, anything from a programmer to a starship engineer.
All heat levels will be accepted, but erotic elements must not be the main focus of the story.
Previously published material will not be considered, nor will manuscripts that have already been rejected by Entangled.
Manuscripts that have been chosen for the anthology will be released as ebooks in 2012, with the possibility of a print compilation at a later date.
To submit a manuscript for consideration, please send the full manuscript (RTF format) and a one-page query letter briefly describing the premise, heat level, and word count to everafter-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com. Query letters should be addressed to Adrien-Luc Sanders. Please include “Geek Collection” and your title in the subject line.
Submissions are open until April 15th, 2012 and final decisions will be made by May 1st. Standard Entangled Publishing royalty rates apply. Standard Entangled Publishing royalty rates apply.
Harlequin’s Newest Editor!!
After 6 months of waiting and 6 different editing tests, I have been contracted as a freelance editor for Harlequin! I am over the moon with excitement :)
What this means for me: Those books you’re seeing on the bookstore shelves? The novels you’re buying on your nook or kindle? Yeah. I touched that. I edited that. I helped shape that. Wow. I am so excited about this opportunity and looking forward to helping good authors improve already great books! :)
Wish me luck!
What this means for me: Those books you’re seeing on the bookstore shelves? The novels you’re buying on your nook or kindle? Yeah. I touched that. I edited that. I helped shape that. Wow. I am so excited about this opportunity and looking forward to helping good authors improve already great books! :)
Wish me luck!
Didn’t See That Coming – Writing Prompt #39
I’m currently reading a Sci-Fi novel, Stardoc by S.L. Viehl, that I didn’t expect initially to enjoy very much. I picked it up at a yard sale for maybe $1, if that, and it was in a moment of boredom that I plucked it off of my shelf to give it a shot. I am SO glad I did. :) While not life-changing or the best book I’ve ever read, it is entertaining, and most importantly, surprising! I am hooked in a way I haven’t been with my reading lately.
When reading yesterday I hit a spot that the writer in me applauded.
The main character is a diminutive female doctor named Cherijo. She’s only 18, grew up sheltered and also dominated by an overbearing father. She’s out of her element on a frontier colony, and pushed to her breaking point in an understaffed, underequipped FreeClinic medical trauma unit.
She’s not my typical fave hero, because I prefer knife/sword-wielding badasses, but I like her all the same despite her being more healer than martial.
When, in a totally freakish moment, the man escorting her somewhere grabbed her quickly and established a mental link with her, without her permission I was outraged! He locked up her body and I felt her complete surprise, horror and fury over it. Turns out the man was trying it on her to see if he could. When he finally releases her and apologizes, the author surprised me by going outside of the healer mode for Cherijo and doing something I found 100% believable: She had Cherijo draw back and punch the man square in the face with all her fear and outrage burning through her.
That was what I didn’t see coming, the realism. Which, of course, inspired a prompt!
I’m not sure it’s possible in the space of a prompt, but, see if you can put a character in a situation where they can surprise a reader, believably, with their actions.
Ready… go!
-------------------------------------------
Here’s my attempt:
Other than the fact that it was red, the toaster oven was almost completely useless. It slow-baked when you wanted it to toast, and considered 350⁰ close enough when you set the oven temp to 400⁰.
Karen sighed at the warmed brick that should have been a delicious piece of sourdough toast and cursed the toaster oven, swearing once again she’d replace it if it didn’t shape up.
She wouldn’t.
The lifetime of frugality she’d learned from her mom would prevent her from tossing out an item that, though it sucked, wasn’t truly broken.
Karen caught fossilized crumbs on her plate and settled at the kitchen table with a book. She managed only a few pages before her cell phone rang. It was a fairly rare occurrence at night, for which she was thankful after listening to the chiming double-ring of the phones all day at work. Her family rarely called, their lives allowing barely more free time than the seconds it took to punch out a text, and the hour was such that if it was her dad, he’d been drinking and probably wouldn’t remember tomorrow that she’d ignored his call tonight.
She didn’t want to talk to whoever it was but her safety nature made her cross to the desk, book still in hand, and glance at the phone’s display.
Her boss’s ID.
She picked it up, faked the phone-smile-voice, and answered.
A coworker had to call out. In her boss’s opinion, being down one man left them in a desperate situation, and could she come in early. Right. Because when the business world didn’t start to panic until market open, they’d certainly get slammed at 5 am. She rolled her eyes as she agreed to the 4 am wake up time like it was really necessary. At least the Chicken Little was grateful when someone soothed his ridiculousness.
She dumped the phone back onto the desk, then cracked open her book. Where was she. . . .
The phone rang. Her boss again.
God damnit.
Unless he’d realized he was being a complete tool about having her come in early, she definitely didn’t want to talk to him again.
“Hello?”
Ah. The weekend. It was the same employee who was scheduled on this weekend, who also couldn’t cover that. Could she? She’d rather poke her eye out. She already had to cover all of New Year’s.
“Uh…”
They could really use her.
“No one else could do it?”
He hadn’t asked anyone at the larger office because despite it being 9 pm on a Thursday and no one else caring if it was scheduled yet or not, he couldn’t sleep until he knew someone was covering the weekend he wasn’t even the back-up on.
“I guess I could. . . .”
Great. She was a lifesaver. Of course he would have done it, if he could, he said. He’d love the overtime, but of course he didn’t get it. He worked 10 breakless hours all day all week he reminded her. As if he ever let anyone forget it. And he didn’t even get overtime, he reminded her. Right. Because he hadn’t known that was the case when he accepted the supe job they’d offered him.
Complete tool.
She made all the non-committal noises of sympathy she could handle while he talked about how he never took days off, wanting both to say “stfu,” and “I’m trying to read, gtf off my phone.”
Working the weekend. Again. She thought of the Christmas shopping she had to do, of the errands she needed to run, the dinner out she wanted to have with her boyfriend…scrapped. The weekend shift meant never being farther from her computer than the laundry room, ready even in the dead of night to work at the drop of a hat. Sure, with a laptop and wifi she could sit at a coffee shop and wait in case work came in, but she couldn’t be off the grid for the time it took to get there. Just. In. Case.
Paid OT was a minor compensation when she thought of how she just couldn’t afford to work the weekend and try to keep up with the rest of her life.
Grrr.
He could take his OT, his “I never take a day off, I hate to stick you with this,” his sky-is-falling paranoia and shove it.
The OT…
She went to her kitchen, unplugged the shiny red toaster oven and marched down to the dumpster, pjs, slippers and all, to heave the useless appliance inside. She could afford to by a real toaster. She didn’t need to keep being frustrated by that abomination.
She made it three steps before the guilt set in. Five more before it really hit her. She made it to the outer door before she caved, pjs, slippers and all, and marched back to the dumpster to retrieve the not-really-broken appliance.
God damn.
When reading yesterday I hit a spot that the writer in me applauded.
The main character is a diminutive female doctor named Cherijo. She’s only 18, grew up sheltered and also dominated by an overbearing father. She’s out of her element on a frontier colony, and pushed to her breaking point in an understaffed, underequipped FreeClinic medical trauma unit.
She’s not my typical fave hero, because I prefer knife/sword-wielding badasses, but I like her all the same despite her being more healer than martial.
When, in a totally freakish moment, the man escorting her somewhere grabbed her quickly and established a mental link with her, without her permission I was outraged! He locked up her body and I felt her complete surprise, horror and fury over it. Turns out the man was trying it on her to see if he could. When he finally releases her and apologizes, the author surprised me by going outside of the healer mode for Cherijo and doing something I found 100% believable: She had Cherijo draw back and punch the man square in the face with all her fear and outrage burning through her.
That was what I didn’t see coming, the realism. Which, of course, inspired a prompt!
I’m not sure it’s possible in the space of a prompt, but, see if you can put a character in a situation where they can surprise a reader, believably, with their actions.
Ready… go!
-------------------------------------------
Here’s my attempt:
Other than the fact that it was red, the toaster oven was almost completely useless. It slow-baked when you wanted it to toast, and considered 350⁰ close enough when you set the oven temp to 400⁰.
Karen sighed at the warmed brick that should have been a delicious piece of sourdough toast and cursed the toaster oven, swearing once again she’d replace it if it didn’t shape up.
She wouldn’t.
The lifetime of frugality she’d learned from her mom would prevent her from tossing out an item that, though it sucked, wasn’t truly broken.
Karen caught fossilized crumbs on her plate and settled at the kitchen table with a book. She managed only a few pages before her cell phone rang. It was a fairly rare occurrence at night, for which she was thankful after listening to the chiming double-ring of the phones all day at work. Her family rarely called, their lives allowing barely more free time than the seconds it took to punch out a text, and the hour was such that if it was her dad, he’d been drinking and probably wouldn’t remember tomorrow that she’d ignored his call tonight.
She didn’t want to talk to whoever it was but her safety nature made her cross to the desk, book still in hand, and glance at the phone’s display.
Her boss’s ID.
She picked it up, faked the phone-smile-voice, and answered.
A coworker had to call out. In her boss’s opinion, being down one man left them in a desperate situation, and could she come in early. Right. Because when the business world didn’t start to panic until market open, they’d certainly get slammed at 5 am. She rolled her eyes as she agreed to the 4 am wake up time like it was really necessary. At least the Chicken Little was grateful when someone soothed his ridiculousness.
She dumped the phone back onto the desk, then cracked open her book. Where was she. . . .
The phone rang. Her boss again.
God damnit.
Unless he’d realized he was being a complete tool about having her come in early, she definitely didn’t want to talk to him again.
“Hello?”
Ah. The weekend. It was the same employee who was scheduled on this weekend, who also couldn’t cover that. Could she? She’d rather poke her eye out. She already had to cover all of New Year’s.
“Uh…”
They could really use her.
“No one else could do it?”
He hadn’t asked anyone at the larger office because despite it being 9 pm on a Thursday and no one else caring if it was scheduled yet or not, he couldn’t sleep until he knew someone was covering the weekend he wasn’t even the back-up on.
“I guess I could. . . .”
Great. She was a lifesaver. Of course he would have done it, if he could, he said. He’d love the overtime, but of course he didn’t get it. He worked 10 breakless hours all day all week he reminded her. As if he ever let anyone forget it. And he didn’t even get overtime, he reminded her. Right. Because he hadn’t known that was the case when he accepted the supe job they’d offered him.
Complete tool.
She made all the non-committal noises of sympathy she could handle while he talked about how he never took days off, wanting both to say “stfu,” and “I’m trying to read, gtf off my phone.”
Working the weekend. Again. She thought of the Christmas shopping she had to do, of the errands she needed to run, the dinner out she wanted to have with her boyfriend…scrapped. The weekend shift meant never being farther from her computer than the laundry room, ready even in the dead of night to work at the drop of a hat. Sure, with a laptop and wifi she could sit at a coffee shop and wait in case work came in, but she couldn’t be off the grid for the time it took to get there. Just. In. Case.
Paid OT was a minor compensation when she thought of how she just couldn’t afford to work the weekend and try to keep up with the rest of her life.
Grrr.
He could take his OT, his “I never take a day off, I hate to stick you with this,” his sky-is-falling paranoia and shove it.
The OT…
She went to her kitchen, unplugged the shiny red toaster oven and marched down to the dumpster, pjs, slippers and all, to heave the useless appliance inside. She could afford to by a real toaster. She didn’t need to keep being frustrated by that abomination.
She made it three steps before the guilt set in. Five more before it really hit her. She made it to the outer door before she caved, pjs, slippers and all, and marched back to the dumpster to retrieve the not-really-broken appliance.
God damn.
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